Dados do Trabalho

Name: 18º Congresso Brasileiro de Neurologia Infantil
Start: 2023-09-06
End: 2023-09-09
Location: Frei Caneca

Título

DEPRESSION IN CAREGIVERS OF CHILDREN WITH SEVERE NEUROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. ARE THEY A RISK GROUP?

Introdução

Common symptoms of depression are depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities. At least one of these two symptoms must be present nearly every day for at least two weeks. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, BDI-II) is a 21-item self-report questionnaire to screen for depressive symptoms. The total score classifies the level of depression intensity and has been widely used to screen depression symptoms in different population groups.
Although many studies indicate a high rate of depression among caregivers of children with severe neurological disabilities, our daily and empirical experience doesn't seem to reflect this. Thus, we are carrying out this work to answer this question: is depression among caregivers of children with neurological diseases more frequent in our clinics? In this abstract, we present our preliminary results.

Objetivo

To evaluate the presence of symptoms of depression in caregivers of children with neurological diseases treated at the Pediatric Neurology outpatient clinic.

Método

Cross-sectional, and prospective, study conducted by undergraduate medical students. Caregivers of children with severe neurological diseases (group 1) and with other pediatric diseases (group 2), treated at a tertiary hospital in an urban area. Inclusion criteria were caregivers aged last 18 years. Exclusion criteria were caregivers with previous mental disorder, unable to comprehend the questions; caregivers not directly related to the child (nurses or professional caregivers from nurseries). Variables were described by descriptive statistics (mean, median, interquartile, etc.). Chi square and Student's test were the statistical methods for comparative analyses.

Resultados e Conclusões

17 caregivers from group 1 and 10 from group 2 have been interviewed until now (n = 27). All the socioeconomic variables between both groups showed no statistical differences, indicating both groups are comparable. The mean (SD) BDI score in group 1 was 17,8 (11,3) and in group 2 24,1 (17,4), p = 0,13. Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy were the most frequent conditions in group 1 children.
Conclusion: We have been observing a trend of lower BDI scores between the caregivers of children with severe neurological diseases, as we have noted previously. Despite a statistical difference could not be determinate, we still find that maybe this could be due to reduced sample. This is an ongoing study. Data collection will continue up to our sample calculated size of 60 caregivers.